Amazigh/Berber Literature and “Literary Space”.

A
contested minority situation in (North) African
literatures.
Daniela Merolla

To cite this version:

Daniela Merolla. Amazigh/Berber Literature and “Literary Space”. A contested minority situa-
tion in (North) African literatures.. Ojaide T. et J. Ashuntantang (dir.). Routledge Handbook
of Minority Discourses in African Literature., Londres et New York : Routledge, pp.27 - 47, 2020,
�10.4324/9780429354229-5�. �hal-03060540�

HAL Id: hal-03060540

https://inalco.hal.science/hal-03060540
Submitted on 22 Dec 2020

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est

archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.
Daniela Merolla. Amazigh/Berber Literature and “Literary Space”. A contested minority
situation in (North) African literatures.. Ojaide T. et J. Ashuntantang (dir.). Routledge
Handbook of Minority Discourses in African Literature., Londres et New York : Ro utledge,
pp.27 - 47, 2020, ⟨10.4324/9780429354229-5⟩

3
Amazigh/Berber literature and “literary space”
A contested minority situation in (North) African literatures

Daniela Merolla

Are the Imazighen/Berbers in a “situation of minority” in the Maghreb and in (North) African literatur es?
Although raising such a question may seem paradoxical in the case of language groups that suffered censure and
gross violence in colonial and postcolonial times, the notion of Amazigh/Berber minority can be tricky to discuss
and is largely rejected by the Imazighen themselves. Such an interrogation leads to questioning the relationships
among historical actors and to avoiding essentialist interpretations of min ority and majority groups in North
Africa. The assigned “situation of minority” or majority needs to be reconstructed in the light of reciprocal
historical dynamics by looking at cultural interaction and change and retracing inequality in power relationshi ps
which are not simply dichotomic (dominant/dominated) but very much articulated ( Bertheleu 2008: 29).
Reflecting on “minor,” “minority,” and “minorization” in literature offers an entrance to such dyna mic
constructions. This article investigates Amazigh/Berber literature and “literary space” by looking at the
articulation of identity construction and at discourses on minority and majority in North Africa.
Both the terms Amazigh and Berber are used because, since the end of the 20th century, the Amazigh (sg.) and
Imazighen (pl.) tend to stand out in society and in current studies, while the term Berber remai ns inscribed
historically in the discourse of the research domain. i The geographical space of the communities using
Amazigh/Berber vernaculars extends from Morocco to the oasis of Siwa in Egypt and passes through Algeria,
Tunisia, and Libya. It also includes the Tuareg Berber-speaking populations in Mali, Niger, and the north of
Burkina Faso.

Contested population figures

The estimated population figures for Imazighen were and are loci of political and scientific debate in both
colonial and postcolonial sociopolitical contexts. The range of estimates indicates that censuses and any existing
sources are either old or unreliable: Amazigh people are presently estimated to number between 12 and 25
million. The latter figure depends upon recalculation based on co lonial sources, while the former derives from
recent censuses that are unreliable concerning language use.ii Moreover, the large migrant communities in Europe
are not always taken into account. While the colonial sources indicated about 40% Amazigh/Berber -speaking
population in Morocco and 25% in Algeria, recent studies agree on lower figures today and wi th huge differences,
as indicated previously. According to the Atlas des minorités dans le monde (Atlas of the World’s Minorities),
Amazigh speakers number 17 million, and in 2008, they constituted 35% of the population in Morocco (Rif,
Middle and High Atlas, Sous), 17% in Algeria (Kabylia, Aurès, Mzab), 2% in Tunisia (Isle of Djerbaa and
Chenini, Douz, Tozeur), 1% in Mauritania (Zenaga), and 6% in Libya (Dj ebel Nefusa). Such figures are much
lower than those recalculated respectively by activists and by scholars, the latter usually working on the basis of
colonial sources. The Tuaregs, who live in a wide Saharan and sub-Saharan area across Algeria, Libya, Mali,
Niger, and Burkina Faso, are estimated to be 83% of the inhabitants of such an enormous area, whi ch is, however,
very little inhabited: Tuaregs are estimated to be around two million speakers in all.
Even when all the difficulties are taken into account, it seems safe to say that the number of Amazigh/Berber
speakers steadily decreased in the 20th century, as it is also doing in the present one. Considering the figures,
Salem Chaker (1989a: 834) wrote: “la berbérité, la conscience d’être berbère, est liée à la berbérophonie et ne
concerne plus qu’une minorité (importante) de la population” (Berber-ness, the consciousness of being Berber,
is linked to the Berber language and concerns only a [significant] minority of the population). iii At the same time,
the high percentages of Amazigh/Berber speakers in Morocco and Algeria make them “bulky minorities,” as
Chaker writes in a later article (2003) reflecting on the fact that, as large and geographically concentrated groups,
they are difficult to manage in national terms. Moreover, the notion of being in a situation of minority is not just
linked to demographics but is characterized by inequality in power relationships and by the reciprocal
representation of the minority/majority discourse over time (Bertheleu 2008: 25). Subsequently, I attempt to
delineate the historical relationships between and among linguistic communities in North Africa in the longue
durée and in the recent past.

Linguistic and cultural arena: the dynamics of the longue durée

It is useful to remember what linguistic and cultural arena is being discussed here. The Amazigh/Berber
vernaculars, such as Taqbaylit and Tachawit in Algeria or Tarifit and Tasoussit in Morocco ,iv have existed in
environments where writing and literacy were diffused since antiquity. The interaction of Mediterranean cultures
and languages is pointed to by archeological findings (e.g. bilingual Libyan and Punic or Latin stelae), by the
Punic origin of the Tifinagh alphabet among the Tuareg Berbers in the Sahara, and by literary elements, such as
the motif of “the ants helping Psyche” in the famous Metamorphoses of Apuleius (Plantade and Plantade 2014),
who wrote in Latin but was born in Madaura (M’daourouch in present-day Algeria) around 123–125 CE.
Historical sources, such as Procopius’ Vandal War, confirm the social and cultural interactions after the
dissolution of the Roman empire, often in terms of violent clashes, and the presence of autochthonous
populations called Mauri (Camps 1984) Although it is difficult to ascertain whether archeological findings and
Latin sources point to the ancestors of present-day Berber speakers in North Africa (Millar 1968: 128, quoted in
McDougall 2003: 70; Rouighi 2011), many studies find it plausible that – on the basis of linguistic elements
present in the sources – at least some of the groups called Mauri used vernaculars that are called today
Amazigh/Berber (Camps 1984; Modéran 2003; Lee, Finkelpearl, and Graverini 2014).
Since the mid-7th century CE, after the Arab conquest of North Africa, one finds the use of terms such as al-
Barbar (the Berbers), lisân al-barbarî (Berber language), and al-barbariyya (the Berber) in Arab sources
(Chaker 2013: 227). According to Ramzi Rouighi (2011), the Mauri of the Latin sources do not correspond to
the Barbar of the Arab ones, the latter term being used in a usually vague way: Arab authors began to create
their “Other” during the progressive conquest of North Africa and Andalusia by “tagging,” under the label
Barbar, heterogeneous groups and confederations of unclear origin, possibly tribal as well as political alliances,
and by developing the idea of the autochthony of the Barbar in the 9th century CE.
Linguistic elements, on the other hand, point to the existence and use of vernaculars today called
Amazigh/Berber by the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties in western North Africa. Building on previous studies,
Ghouirgate (2015) shows, for example, that a “Berber” variant played a central role in the preaching as well as
in the military action of the founder of the Almohad dynasty, Ibn Tumart – who, using it in writing, promoted it
as a language for religious texts.

The language used by the Almohads was called al-lisān al-garbī (the Western language). The Almohads made
the choice not to designate as “Berber” the idiom they used because this was a too derogatorily connoted term
linked to the long-standing heresies of this people.

(Ghouirgate 2015: 580)

 The use of the “Western language” by religious preachers and scholars in the 12 th century led to the
development of orthographic norms which continued to be used under the following dynasties, and an advanced
bilingualism is expressed in linguistic elements that appear in historical and literary sources of this period. v
Ghouirgate (2015: 596) concludes by indicating that the use of the Western language and Arabic in religious,
military, and administrative tasks under the Almohads opposes the leitmotif of the Berbers as a minority since
the Arab conquest of North Africa and of the Berber language as only an oral language.
In the field of the literary tradition, the acquisition of Arabic literacy led to a religi ous written production in
Amazigh/Berber not only in regions under the Almohad dynasty, such as the Souss (south Morocco) but also in
the Mzab in Algeria and at Djerba in Tunisia. vi Several Berber manuscripts written in the Arabic script present
religious commentaries, poems, and admonitions. Most of these manuscripts are preserved thanks to versions
from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Over time, the diffusion of the Arabic language (Arabization) increased, and Arabic was acquired by larger
strata of the population in North Africa. The social and political changes brought about by the diffusion of Islam
and Arabic led to the formation of multilingual contexts, where oral languages were used for daily
communication and literary production (Amazigh/Berber vernaculars and dialectal Arabic) as well as for
commerce and communication between distant individuals and groups (dialectal Arabic), while a written,
prestigious language (classical Arabic) increasingly became the vehicle for religion, scholarly literary
production, and urban administrations. Judeo-Arabic languages were also spoken and written in North Africa.
As noted before, writing in Amazigh/Berber disappeared or became limited, while Amazigh/Berber vernaculars,
as oral languages, became subordinated to the prestige of written Arabic, the sacred language of the Koran.
When one looks at the cultural arena in the longue durée, the notions of majority/minority are inadequate
when applied to the relationships between Arab speakers and Amazigh/Berber speakers, si nce they convey the
idea of homogeneous and separate groups and of the Berbers as a historically minorized group. Such notions do
not take into account the long process of creolization of the Maghreb. The examples given previously illustrate
the presence of Berber dynasties in present-day Morocco, the role of the Berber variant called “Western
language” as court language and written tool of religious communication, and the interconnectedness of the
“Western language” and Arabic. Also, in the area corresponding to present-day Algeria, speaking a local Berber
vernacular did not always mean being a member of a minority: pre-colonial relationships were governed by
political and lineage affiliation, although language could play a role in these relations hips. For instance, one can
take the case of two large and powerful Kabyle Berber confederations (also called “kingdoms” in colonial texts)
established at the beginning of the 16th century (Kuku, roughly located in present central Kabylia, and Beni
Abbas, roughly corresponding to present maritime Lesser Kabylia). These confederations were rival and
strategically allied with or opposed to the Ottoman empire in Algiers and the latter’s enemies (the Hafsid dynasty
of Tunis and the Spanish army) in order to maintain their own power positions (Roberts 2014; Genevois 1974).
At alternating moments, they even defeated the Ottomans and imposed themselves in Algiers.

The making of minorities and majorities in North Africa

As developed subsequently, the minorization of Amazigh/Berber languages and communities is a colonial and
postcolonial phenomenon linked to the creation of national states. The use of language as ethnic marker was
applied – among other categories such as rural and urban, nomad and sedentary – during colonization, and the
construction of communities united (and divided) by language increased under the pos tcolonial Arabization
policy.
From the first half of the 19th century, the situation described in the colonial studies was that of a mosaic of
Muslim Arab- and Berber-speaking populations, whose alliances and loyalties intersected and went beyond
language groupings. Where Berber vernaculars were spoken, usually a limited number of Muslim literates used
Arabic as written support for religious activities. Colonization superimposed the French language (written and
spoken) in the Maghreb and introduced a divisive policy of communities defined as Arab, Berber, Muslim, and
Jew.
Public and religious schools disseminated French-language instruction in Algeria and Morocco. Arabic
teaching was suppressed in Algeria after 1870 and partially maintained in Morocco during the protectorate but
for a very low percentage of the population. vii Berber teaching was designed to train military personnel,
administrators, and interpreters for the conquest and management of Berber areas. There was no French colonial
teaching of Berber to Berber-speaking populations, notwithstanding the creation of the so-called Franco-Berber
schools that were “Berber” only for the recruitment areas of pupils and some teachers ( Knibiehler 1994: 493).
These schools were successful, however, in creating “a new francophone rural Berber elite” ( Maddy-Weitzman
2011: 58).
The colonial discourse on the Berbers was Janus faced. On the one hand, Berbers were depicted as the bons
sauvages of North Africa and as the Roman civilization’s heirs, who aspired only to be reintegrated into Western
civilization thanks to assimilation to French colonization. On the other hand, Berber society was stigmatized as
being more retrograde than the Arab one was. Women’s status was presented as particularly retrograde, since
women were disinherited and they could be married off before puberty and even “sold” to their husbands (which
Berber intellectuals denied). The Berber language and literature supposedly also expressed such a back ward
sociocultural position. viii The representations of Berber society in and by colonial writings were called into
question by a number of Berber writers, students, schoolteachers, and local intellectuals who had been educated
in the French school system (such education was also diffused among their Arabic-speaking fellow countrymen).
A number of these individuals – professionals, semi-professionals, and amateurs – began to learn and teach how
to write in Berber, and to collect, transcribe, translate, and re-diffuse (in writing) Berber oral poetry and
narratives. These activities, in synergy with the overall social changes, constituted a productive framework for
the self-production of “Berber” local identities.
The divisive colonial policy aimed at opposing two imagined homogeneous groups (“Arabs and Berbers”) did
not succeed, and anticolonial forces from all sides and regions joined political parties and military actions.
Berber-speaking areas were often bastions of the anticolonial movements in Algeria and Morocco, such as in the
case of Kabylia, the Aurès, and the Rif. In the latter region, a powerful military rebe llion led to the constitution
of the short-lived Republic of the Rif (1921–1926) under the leadership of Abdelkrim El Khattabi. Although
various interpretations of the rebellion are possible (Pennel 2017), the Republic of the Rif was proclaimed in the
name of Islam and of freedom from Spanish and French domination. Maddy-Weitzman (2011: 85) writes:
“Berber population acted neither as a large cohesive unit, nor in the name of a specific Berber-Moroccan
identity.” This applies by and large to North African anticolonial movements. The language question, however –
although not explicitly mentioned – was probably involved in the conflicts within the Algerian FLN (National
Liberation Front), which set the Kabyle Berber leaders on the margins of the revolutionary movement during the
anticolonial war and during the unrest that took place just after independence, ending with the military
occupation of Kabylia. ix A similar pattern developed in the Rif region where, in 1958, the Moroccan army under
the leadership of future king Hassan II repressed an uprising which had aimed at safeguarding the local economy
and tribal autonomy. Although language was not a factor in the rebellion or in the repression, Hassan II
strategically chose two spouses of Berber origin (from the Middle Atlas) to indicate the integration of such
communities into his kingdom and, at the same time, enforced the damnatio memoriae of the Republic of the Rif
from public spaces and supported the Moroccan Arabization policy aimed at replacing Berber with Arabic in the
whole country.x
In the post-independence period, the linguistic policy in the Maghreb indeed centered on the adoption of
Arabic. If Arabization was seen as a form of national affirmation against the colonizer, the previous subordination
of Berber (as oral vernacular) to Arabic as the sacred written language acquired a political connotation. Berber
was stigmatized as the bygone language of local ancestors and denied vitality and public space. At the same
time, Berber-speaking activists and writers started to demand recognition for Berber as a component of the
national culture and its integration into school programs. Such demands were interpreted by Algerian and
Moroccan governments and national elites as a risk to national identity and unity, which were represented by
Arabic. Activists were accused of “localism” and of French “acculturation.” Their activism in favor of the Berber
language and of improved political and economic conditions of lif e in Berber-speaking areas was presented as
“Berberism,” manipulatively interpreted as foreboding requests for r egional independence. As indicated
previously, the large Amazigh/Berber-speaking communities – geographically concentrated and, one can add,
with a history of military action as confederations of lineages and villages – posed a question of management to
national centralized states. Inclusion and federation could have been a strategy but, instead, the label of
“Berberism” became a weapon for police and military repression by authoritarian governments aiming to control
and to suppress all political opposition.
Considering the post-independence policy, it is no surprise that until the late 1990s there was no Berber school
education in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia. University studies on Berber developed mainly outside the
Maghreb, which contributed to configuring Berber speakers as a minority. Such a school policy was a
consequence of the colonial politics of division as well as the expre ssion of the authoritarian character of the
nationalist governments in North Africa. The exception of the recognition of Tuareg Berber as a “national”
language in Mali and Niger from 1961 led to limited activities of schooling and an alphabetization policy, though
this did little to contribute to modifying the difficult power relationships, and repeated violent clashes between
national armies and Tuaregs occurred. xi The epitome of the confrontations was the attempt, linked to long-
standing socioeconomic marginalization and the diffusion of global radical Islamic movements, to create the
independent state of Azawad in 2012. xii
The recognition of Amazigh as a national and official language in Algeria (respectively, from 1995 and 2016)
and in Morocco (from 2001 and 2011) was brought about after long years of activism, mass demonstrations, and
state repression. xiii Although it is impossible to speak of a homogeneous movement – because individuals with
diverse political views and various fragmented groups participated in it – it is safe to say that, by and large,
Amazigh/Berber activism has increased the production of identity discourses locally and nationally. At the same
time, the transnational approach to “Amazigh-ness” has been strengthened by organizations aiming to cross
national borders – such as the Berber Academy in the 1970s and later on the Amazigh World Congress – and was
emblematically represented by the creation of the Amazigh flag in the late 1990s. xiv Decades of Algerian state
repression and economic deprivation of Kabylia led to the development of an activist discourse in terms of
autonomy (MAK, Mouvement pour l’autonomie de la Kabylie; RPK, Rassemblement pour la Kabylie) and, in
2013, of self-determination (MAK) – somehow taking up the Catalan model (Tilmatine 2017). It seems sadly
ironic that the fear of national division led to repressive policies that turned out to be a self -fulfilling prophecy.
It should be clear, however, that the MAK is just one of the political organizations in Kabylia and that the choice
for self-determination is questioned by other parties – such as the FFS (Socialist Forces Front), the RCD (Rally
for Culture and Democracy), and, recently, the RPK (Rally for Kabylia) – which inscribe regional autonomy in
the national state framework. xv In Morocco, the Amazigh/Berber language and identity were not among the
demands of the Hirak movement in the Rif xvi – somehow a follow-up to the previous national 20 February
Movement.xvii Hirak leaders asked for a solution to the economic problems and corruption in the region, but
Amazigh flags were often visible during the demonstrations. This latter element was used by the authorities to
accuse the Hirak movement of separatism – which is denied by activists (Wolf 2018: 5) – adding such an
accusation to the reasons devised to crush the movement violently and arrest hundreds of participants.
If the minorization of Berbers/Imazighen coalesces in postcolonial times, the idea of separate minorities and
majorities is at the same time countered by the Moroccan central authority’s strategy to manage Amazigh/Berber
areas through the integration of the Berber elites and rural middle classes into the national politics and in the
“patronage/spoils of power” system (système de cooptation in French) (Maddy-Weitzman 2011: 88, 96). Also,
the postcolonial Algerian policy has strategically included individuals and families of the rural middle class in
the power system. The consequences of the spoils system (linked to the economic boom of the 1970s) are
differently interpreted as contributing to shaping an elitist Berber con sciousness or, conversely, creating a class
interested in its own social benefits and its own integration into the national power system ( Roberts 1982; Chaker
1989b: 71–81). Either way, the consciousness of being Amazigh/Berber developed among local elites and the
wider strata of population in regions such as Kabylia, the Souss, and the Rif, which renewed and modified
previous identities derived from local lineages and confederations. Such consciousness developed under the
impact of a number of intertwined processes: the divisive colonization policy and the anticolonial fighting , the
social changes and migration flows caused by colonization and by postcolonial crises, the expected “death” of
oral languages due to factors such as literacy and “modernization,” nationalism and Arabization, centralizing
policies, economic marginalization, and postcolonial police and military repression.

A contested situation of minority

The inequality in power relationships and the economic and political marginalization of Amazigh/Berber -
speaking regions in North African postcolonial states has led some activists to claim the status of “minority.”
For example, the association Tamaynut and one of its leading founders, Hassan Id Belkassem, linked their
demands for the recognition of the Amazigh/Berber language in Morocco to the United Nation’s legal status and
definition of “indigenous minority people” (Maddy-Weitzman 2011: 132). The previously mentioned position of
the MAK can also be seen as the implementation of the idea of a minority (or rather a regional “majori ty”)
aspiring to self-determination.
 On the other hand, most activists refuse to be seen as, and to be confined by the definition of, a minority.
Taking the history of Arabization of the Maghreb as a starting point, such a position affirms that
Imazighen/Berbers cannot be presented as a minority, because most of the North African population is composed
of Arabized Berbers who “lost” their original language. Hence, in such an approach, Imazighen/Berbers are de
facto the majority. Presenting themselves as the “autochthonous” people of North Africa, pre-existing the process
of Arabization, activists challenge their minorization within their national borders. A s indicated previously, a
transnational approach to a pan-Amazigh/Berber identity has also developed. A widespread idea among Amazigh
activists is their affiliation to Tamazgha, a North African autochthonous cultural space, politically and
territorially unified, which is hoped for in the future and which otherwise has no historical existenc e. There is a
weakness in this approach: presenting the Imazighen/Berbers as the autochthonous people of North Africa aiming
to (re)construct a utopian cultural and territorial unity disregards the creolization of the Maghreb. As indicated
by Karima Dirèche (2017: 81), presenting “Berber culture as original and authentic . . . would suggest that all
those who claim an Arab genealogy must now assume altered, if not inauthentic, ancestry.” Moreover, activists
tend to dismiss or ignore the contradiction between the national pluralistic model maintained by the Amazigh
associations and the idea of the cultural continuity of a Tamazgha whose existence is justified by the autochthony
of Imazighen (with respect to other groups) (Oiry-Varacca 2012: 12; Jay 2016: 72). The intellectually more
extreme consequences of such an approach are limited, however, by the positions claiming Amazigh as part of
the nation state. Many Amazigh associations and trends “consider Amazighity as a basis of identity common to
all Moroccans and not as a substrate that devalues that which would come afterwards or as a prerequisite of an
ethnical or cultural group” (Oiry-Varacca 2012: 12). Such a moderate position attempts to maintain the demands
in favor of Amazigh/Berber languages and communities without posing them as internal “minorities.”
In summary, the process of minorization of Amazigh/Berber speakers and communities in the sense of limited
rights and unbalanced political power is historically a modern phenomenon, developed in the colonial and
postcolonial periods. Such a minorization is resented and opposed by several currents of Amazigh/Berber
activism. The formation of an internationally shared Amazigh/Berber identity is also a modern phenomenon,
which is articulated to equally modern local identities emerging from past linkages and strong feelings of
belonging to specific villages and confederations. It is undeniable that the notions of majority/minority fail to
take into account the long process of creolization of the Maghreb as well as the activist discourse reclaiming that
the Imazighen/Berbers are the majority when the North African territory is seen as overlapping with an
“autochthonous” Amazigh/Berber cultural space. As indicated previously, the latter cultural space is utopian and
contested in the studies because it also tends to disregard creolization.
What Amazigh/Berber literature can tell us about minority, multilingualism, and transnationalism is the topic
of the following sections.

Minorization and literature

Taking Franz Kafka as an example, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1975) developed their famous definition
of “minor” literature, which refers not to what is produced in the language of a linguistic or other minority but
to works written in the mainstream (dominant or national) language by authors who belong to a group that finds
itself in a situation of minority or marginalization. Writers do not need to live in the place where the majority
language is spoken (Kafka wrote in German and lived in Prague), but they express an “other” sensibility or
consciousness vis-à-vis the canonical literature produced in the mainstream language. The definition of “minor”
literature is not directly linked to demographics or to the idea of a “lesser” literature. On the contrary, Deleuze
and Guattari celebrate the expressive and innovating force of “minor” voices creating counter-discourses to
hegemonic, majoritarian, national narratives.
Literary and cultural studies agree on three main characteristics of minority literature, descending from
Deleuze and Guattari’s work: deterritorialization, politics, and collective discourse (for instance, JanMohamed
and Lloyd 1987; Bensmaia 1994; Buchanan and Marks 2000; Ponzanesi 2004; Haines 2015; Laurie and Khan
2017). By deterritorialization is meant the distance of the “minor” voice from the mainstream literary language,
which disrupts canonical ways of expression and creates a new literary language. This literary disruption can
take place through an “accented” language, such as the use of Prague German in Kafka; through extreme forms
of playfulness or gravity; and through questioning and weakening the sociological link between national territory,
language, and identity (Lauri and Khan 2017: 3). The political character of minority literature is provided by the
attention paid to the holistic relationship between the individual and his/her community. Because of such a
holistic relation, all events become collective in the form of a social and political drama – which allows the
interpretation of minority literature as revolutionary with regard to mainstream literature which is (seen as more)
individualistically oriented. According to such an approach, an aspect of this political character is that minority
works are characterized by collective discourse, as the writers tend to express communal values and idea s more
than individual ones. The latter characteristic strengthens the political effect of writing by inventing a collectivity
which takes form in the minority literature.
The articulation of minority literature and cultural difference within the nation is to be found in Homi Bhabha’s
chapter “Time, narrative and the margin of the modern nation” (1994: 199–244). Bhabha writes:

Cultural difference, as a form of intervention, participates in a logic of supplementary subversion similar to

the strategies of minority discourse. . . . The aim of cultural difference is to rearticulate the sum of knowledge
from the perspective of the signifying position of the minority that resists totalization.

(1994: 232)
As in the case of “minor” voices, cultural difference exposes the c ontradictions of the national, unifying, and
homogenizing narration:

The very possibility of cultural contestation, the ability to shift the ground of knowledges, or to engage in the
“war of position,” marks the establishment of new forms of meaning, and strategies of identification.
Designations of cultural difference interpellate forms of identity which, because of their continual implication
in other symbolic systems, are always “incomplete” or open to translation.

(Bhabha 1994: 233)

Bhabha’s reflection on cultural difference and minority discourse helps us to understand that the characteristics
of “minor” literatures mentioned previously intersect and overlap with those of the so-called postcolonial
literatures. Postcolonialism, as it is known, refers to art and literature produced after the encounter/clash
following European invasions in Asia, Africa, America, Australia, and Oceania. xviii Nowadays, the label
“postcolonial literature” is criticized as yet another form of ethnocentrism, because it seems to say that European
colonialism was, and still is, the most important moment in global history and in world lit erature. In fact, the
opposite is apparent: many contemporary works are not at all concerned with colonialism and postcoloniality.
Despite the criticism, some characteristics of “postcolonial” texts can be identified: thinking and writing beyond
national, cultural, and social borders, with transnationalism as a central characteristic; questioning notions of
“home,” identity, and cultural affiliation, including fragmentation, alienation, and hybridity; rediscovering local
knowledge (as opposed to dominating “Western” theories); exploring diversity and equality within a community,
between communities, and between minorities and majorities; blurring genre and language boundaries; and
bringing language creativity to the extreme by, among other devices, interacti ng with mother tongues when
writing is in a mainstream language.
Studies largely refer to “minor” voices and cultural difference in literatures produced in the European
languages of the colonial domination – and by extension in the languages of other dominations – but some studies
have begun to apply postcolonial research to African language literatures. xix In the following section, a reflection
is offered on Amazigh/Berber literature and “literary space” in the light of the characteristics attributed by
theoretical approaches to postcolonial and minority literatures.

Amazigh/Berber literature: beyond minority voices

As indicated in the previous sections, when one looks at the longue durée, both the religious manuscripts written
in Amazigh/Berber and Berber as a court language oppose the stereotypes of Amazigh as an exclusively oral
language and as a language reduced to a minority situation since the Islamization and the Arabization of the
Maghreb. Moreover, literary analysis shows that Amazigh oral poetry and narratives are solidly anchored in their
own vernacular and territory. Lexical loans (from Arabic and to a lesser extent from French) in narratives told in
Amazigh and collected since the 19th century are indications of social and political interactions o f such
vernaculars with the broader context. Specifically, the use of poetic verses in Arabic shows the presti ge of the
Arabic language. There is also a tension between Muslim universal culture and local heroes and values. For
example, Camille Lacoste-Dujardin (1970), analyzing a corpus of the Kabyle folktales collected and published
in 1893–1898, shows the presence of two kinds of heroes: the first a “traditional” defender of the local group
and the second a “conquering” hero emblematically represented by the stories concerning Harun al -Rashid, the
famous caliph of the Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad (8th century CE) and renowned personage of the Arabian
Nights. Nevertheless, one does not find a questioning of belonging or a language “deterritorialization” in
Amazigh folktales – rather the negotiation of multilingualism and Islamic references integrated into the narration
of one’s world and identity. At the same time, such intellectual negotiations challenge the assimilation to
homogenizing literary models arising from Muslim universal culture. The language of Amazigh po ems and tales
confirms esthetic codes and traditions, while their literary strategies sustain the ideal of social cohesion, the
moral values, and the reproduction of the conventional norms of the local societies which produced such oral
genres and shared the Berber vernaculars. Studies show that Kabyle, Chaouia, and Riffian folktales, for example,
create and affirm, respectively, Kabyle-, Chaouia-, and Rif-centered worlds, while itinerant bards contributed to
create a common and highly appreciated literary language and tradition in the whole of the Souss region. xx
Innovation and change do exist in Amazigh oral genres, as they do overall in other oral literatures. An example
is given by the introduction of the poem composed by a strophe of nine verses in the K abyle poetry of the second
half of the 19th century. As Lahlou’s research (2017) exemplary shows, the emergence of such a poetry can be
explained in the context of the upheaval and disorientation induced by colonization. The colonizers’
expropriation of the land belonging to Kabyle villages and confederations ; the later military defeat after the
uprising of 1871; and the consequent disruption of previous social, political, and economic structures led to a
weakening of the role of the professional “tribal” poets and their styles. xxi The poet Si Mohand ou Mhand
innovatively adopted the nine-verse strophe as an autonomous form of poem and intensified the literary lang uage,
in his case through sobriety and lapidary style, as in the definitions of minor literature. However, in contrast with
the latter, Si Mohand ou Mhand also continued to use his mother tongue and developed themes leading to an
“individualization” of his poems, not to a promotion of collective values. Moreover, although oral genres are
usually marginalized on the national and global literary scenes, the poetry of Si Mohand ou Mhand is still well
known, diffused, and appreciated among the Kabyles. His nine-verse strophe, or Mohandien asefrou, is today
widespread in Kabyle poetic production, thus having become “mainstream” within such a cultural context
(Mammeri 1969; Lahlou 2017):

Si Mohand ou Mhand’s poems differ and oppose the long tradition of epic, didactic, hagiographic, and
narrative poetry – for it is first of all an individual, personal, and spontaneous poetry, which essentially
expresses the shocks of its existence and the echoes of its interior universe.

(Lahlou 2017: 376)

Another example of innovation and change is provided by the “modern” Amazigh songs and music groups.
Although some oral genres tend to disappear along with their contexts of production, new forms have also arisen
at the intersection of oral, written, audiovisual, and digital modes. Increasingly, the overwhelmingly varied and
enormously popular genre of modern songs incorporates “classical” musical styles and poetry with inspiration
and instruments from around the world. Singers such as Idir, Aït Menguellet, Matoub, and Khalid Izri and the
bands Djurdjura and Izenzren have innovated in terms of music, abandoning the orchestration d iffused in the
1940s under the influence of Andalusian and Egyptian music and adopting the sound of acoustic and electric
guitars, drums, and synthesizers. Another example is the music of the Tuareg band Tinariwen, whose members
play teherdent (lute), imzad (violin), tinde (drum), and electric guitar. Morgan (2007) argues that Tinariwen
merge the Tuareg style of assouf (“solitude” or “nostalgia”) with influences from Kabyle Berber contemporary
songs (for instance, from Idir and Aït Menguellet), Malian blues, Algerian urban raï, Moroccan chaabi, pop,
rock, and Indian music. xxii
In term of language, all these singers and bands sing in the Amazigh vernaculars of their families and
communities, contributing to maintaining and developing them and resisting the enforcement of homogeniza tion
by Arabization and international global languages. Others, however, may increa singly participate in the global
multilingual scene, as in the case of Hindi Zahra, who sings in English and Chleuh Berber and incorporates
Chleuh sounds with blues, jazz, American folk, Egyptian music, and the influence of African singers such as Ali
Farka Touré and Youssou’ Ndour. xxiii In terms of themes, a large number of the Amazigh lyrics can be labeled
“protest songs,” but without pointing to didactic or pamphlet-like styles. Abdellah Bounfour (2006: 4438) aptly
summarizes it as follows:
The contemporaneity of such poetry resides essentially in its renewed themes and, among them, th at of
identity is haunting: Who are we? Why are we dominated? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? The
answers to such questions are given by re-reading ancient and/or recent history, by sociology, and so on.
It can be said, without hesitation, that sung poetry popularized the ideas that Berber intellectuals, their
creators, could not carry beyond their own circles.
Skillfully analyzing the song “A vava inouva,” Jane E .Goodman (2005: 49–68) shows that the singer Idir and
the poet Ben Mohamed were able to vivify a traditional tale and refrain to engage the feeling of homeliness and
at the same time to contest “the Algerian state’s discourse which positioned Berber cultur e as backward and at
odds with the state’s modernizing projects” (49). xxiv Goodman adds that Ben Mohammed sees such an innovation
as deriving from their internal gaze “informed by neither the East nor the West but by indigenous modes of
knowledge” (Goodman 2005: 49). Blending a traditional story with new attributed meanings and traditional
sounds with European instruments, Idir and Ben Mohamed were able to counter the folklorizatio n of Berber
culture through an original synthesis of ethnographic continuity and change: “ A vava inouva” became “an
emblem of Berber identity, a sign of the rich heritage, legitimacy, and modernity of Kabyle culture” ( Goodman
2005: 68). “A vava inouva” became a hit not only for the Kabyles but also in Algeria and in France, selling
around 200,000 copies (Humblot 1978, quoted in Goodman 2005: 65). The Tuareg band Tinariwen also received
international acclaim: in 2005, their album Amassakoul (The Traveler) had sales of more than 100,000 copies,
and they were awarded the Best World Music Grammy in Los Angeles in 2012. Nadia Belalimat (2010: 155)
explains that Tinariwen became internationally known for their particular style of music and for presenting a
contemporary image of Tuareg society. Their songs are effective in creating internal bonding by expressing (past)
military experience and a real political engagement (Belalimat 2010: 7) – for example, when songs and music
gatherings were used to convey militant ideas and to spread them through cassettes and othe r media, such as
radio and later on cell phones and the Internet:

Friends hear and understand me

You know, there is one country
One goal, one religion
And unity, hand in hand
Friends, you know there is only one stake to which you fettered
And only unity can break it.

(“Imidiwen segdet teslem,” 1978)xxv

At the same time, the blend of Tuareg classic music style and instruments with electronic and international
sounds, the images of four-wheel drives, camels, beautifully clothed men with veils and turbans, electronic
guitars, and the marketing of “rebel” music have fascinated the international public, refash ioning previous
imagery of the Tuaregs as the grand warriors of colonial fantasies. If a recurrent theme is the nostalgia linked to
the desert and the fatherland (Belalimat 2010), a major theme of the Tinariwen’s songs is indeed “rebellion”
against Malian state oppression. Their songs castigate the harsh repression of the Tuareg uprisings particularly
in the 1960s, recalling a courageous military image in terms of rightful r ebellion against authoritarian
governments. Besides themes of military bravery, Belalimat (2010: 5) shows that the Tinariwen also address the
situation of exiles and refugees in Algerian and Libyan camps and contemporary complaints, such as in the song
Ahimana (Oh My Soul):

Oh mother! Since I left for Libya persevering,

I finally arrived! But I cannot settle in no way
I search for the necessary money through all means
But it desperately refuses to accumulate.

Tinariwen, “Ahimana” (track 4), 2008 xxvi

 Women as singers participate in the construction of contemporary Amazigh identities (such as in the case of
the band Djurdjura and the singer Fatima Tabaaramte), but they also complain about and reflect on life from
their own “minor” position vis-à-vis men, presenting or discussing the roles attributed to women and the norms
concerning femininity in their own communities (Nouara, Cherifa, Tabaaramte , Djurdjura). This is something
that one can also recognize in some of the Amazigh songs of Hindi Zahra, whose texts primarily speak of intim ate
experiences and urban youth culture. For example, her song “Oursoul” – a wordplay which can be interpreted as
both “Our soul” in English and “Ursul” in Amazigh Tasoussit (Never again) – tells the story of her parents’
marriage but can be interpreted as a more generalized complaint against arranged marriages:

They told me: “Rest, your husband will come.”

They said to me: “Rest, he will come.”
I will never have what I want!
They told me: “It will work out.”
I will never have what I want!

(Hindi Zahra, “Oursoul,” Handmade, 2010)

I choose English because it is a way to create a space from the things I say. It would be very hard for me to
sing my love stories in my mother’s tongue. In the Berber [language], I talk about different stories. Especially
in “Oursoul,” when I talk about the story of my parents. They had to get married, not really forced, but the
system was like this in the village. You had to get married. Berber was the easiest way to express and talk
about this.

(Hindi Zahra. “Discovery: Hindi Zahra.” Interview, August 29, 2011, interviewmagazine.com)
A more complicated relationship to language than that of “minor” vs “major,” or hegemonic language, is
expressed by Hindi Zahra in the previous interview: “another” language can also offer a space of liberty to
express that which, in the eyes of the singer, is not legitimate or socially acceptable in her vernacular and in the
community that such a language creates. This was a well-known point in literary criticism concerning
Francophone literature (Bounfour 1990; Déjeux 1994: 130; Dehane 1992: Le Rouzic 1996; Gans-Guinoune
2010: 70; Yacine 1995). For example, the famous writer Assia Djebar says in an interview “the norm is not to
talk about oneself [...],one never says ‘I’” (Dehane 1992 : TC 0 0:02:30 – 00:03:31)
The previously mentioned examples of innovations in oral genres and changes in literary and musical registers
point to a process of literary and musical acquisition, negotiation, and subversion, which can be interpreted in
term of cultural difference and global postcolonial features. If it is clear that contemporary poets and singers
create in response and reaction to the pressure of hegemonic languages and political systems, at the same time ,
the focus on using their own vernaculars (or combining them with other languages) and on shared literary/music
styles derived from still-loved literary traditions shows the will, and the practice, to affirm their “internal” gaze
and cultural difference, even when participating in increasingly global scenes.

Writing in Amazigh vernaculars and in other languages

With the significant exception of the Cahiers de Belaïd, posthumously published in 1963 and 1964 (Aït Ali/Dallet
and Degezelle, eds.), a new production of novels written in Amazigh/Berber started in the last decades of the
last century as the engaged effort of writers who had been educated either in French or in Arabic. Th e first novels
(ungal/ungalen) in Kabyle appeared in the 1980s. The interweaving between literary creation and historical
context (the repression of the so-called Berber Spring) was underscored by the militant and identity tone of the
novels Asfel (The Ritual Sacrifice, 1981) and Faffa (La France, 1986) by Rachid Aliche and Askuti (Boy Scout,
1983) by Said Sadi, as well as of the novels published later, such as Iḍ d wass (Day and Night, 1990) by Amar
Mezdad and Tafrara (Dawn, 1995) by Salem Zénia. Among the features of these novels, as analyzed by Abrous
(1989: 81–100, 1992), are that they avoid loan words from Arabic and preserve the language through the use of
Berber neologisms and ancient expressions, while, on the other hand, they show a lexical and syntactic influence
from French. As Salhi (2014: 151) aptly notes:
 the elements borrowed from Islam and the Arabic language and, more recently, from Western culture,
particularly from the French language and culture, to mention only the most important elements, have been
integrated and adapted by the Kabyle to such an extent that at present they constitute structuring parameters
of their lived culture.
The Mammeri Prize (Tizi Ouzou), established for writing in Kabyle, and more recently new contests have helped
to stimulate young writers. In the last decade, novels and short stories show a greater variety of themes, such as
love, infidelity, children/parent conflicts, radicalism, and “recalcitrant” Islamists. If the language of the Kabyle
novels is often difficult because of the high recurrent number of neologisms and the syntactic influence of French,
some novels are more readable and close to spoken Kabyle (Salhi 2005) – such as Salas d Nuja (Salas and Nuja
2003, names of characters) by Brahim Tazaghart, Lwerd n tayri (The Rose of Love, 2004) by Igli n tlelli (Horizon
of Freedom, pseud.), Bururu (Owl, 2006) by Tahar Ould-Amar, and the collection of short stories Ger zik d tura
(From the Past and Today, 1993/2008) by Saïd Chemak. The theme of family relations in a poor and harsh Kabyle
context is taken up in the text by Fatima Merabti, Yir Tagmat (Bad Brotherhood, first two chapters of a novel
that were published in the journal Tizir in 1997 and 1998) and in Aâecciw n tmes (The Fire Hut, 2009), the first
published novel of a Kabyle woman writer, Lynda Koudache. Koudache presents women’s ma gic opposing
“love” in a traditional world in which, as in the world of tales, marriage is more than a meeting of hearts because
it involves the social and economic roles of, and within, the extended family.
Amazigh written production in Morocco has seen the appearance of plays, novels, and short stories by Riffian
and Souss writers. However, publication is limited, as the works are often self -published or scattered in small
periodicals. After Ali Mimoun Essafi’s plays published in the 1980s, the first nove l in Souss Berber is Tawargit
d imik (A Dream and a Little More), authored by Mohammed Akunad. Published in 2002, this novel concerns
the unforeseen consequences of an imam’s decision to pray and to teach in Amazigh. Currently, there are at least
20 novels and 20 collections of short stories published in Souss Berber, such as Amussu n umalu (The Movement
of the Shadow, 2008) by Lahacem Zaheur, Ijjigen n tidi (The Flowers of Sweat, 2007) by Mohamed Akunad, and
Igdad n Wihran (The Birds of Oran, 2010) by Lahoucine Bouyaakoubi. The first novels in the Rif vernacular
were published in the diaspora. As in the case of Kabyle literature, there is a continuity of cultural production
between the country of origin and the Riffian emigration in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain. Emigration,
travel, and memory are central themes – for example, in Reẓ ṭṭabu ad d teffegh tfukt (Breaking the Taboo and
Letting the Sun Appear, 1997) by the late Mohamed Chacha (who also has collections of short stories and po ems
to his name). Several writers active in Morocco and the Netherlands have produced novels and short stories as
well as theatrical productions and films, such as Mohamed Bouzaggou, Omar Boumazzough, and Ahmed Ziani.
The first novel published by a woman writer appeared in Tarifit: Tasrit n weẓru (The Bride of the Rock) by
Samira Yedjis n Idura n Arrif (pseud.), published in Morocco (Oujda) in 2001.
As a consequence of the colonial and postcolonial school policy, it is not surprising that a large proportion of
Amazigh/Berber-speaking authors wrote in other languages until about the 1990s. An example is the genre of
the novel. The novels of the first Berber writers were often written in French, such a s in the case of the Algerian
Mouloud Feraoun (1913–1962), Mouloud Mammeri (1917–1989), Fdhma Amrouche (1882–1967), and Taos
Amrouche (1947–1976), and by the Moroccan Mohamed Khaïr-Eddine (1941–1995), or in Arabic by the
Moroccan Mohamed Choukri (1935–2003) and Mohamed Mrabet (1936), and by the Libyan Ibrahim Al-Kûnî
(1948). Several studies have highlighted the use of Kabyle words and expressions and the transposition of oral
genres in the works of Mouloud Feraoun, Mouloud Mammeri, Fadhma Amrouche, and Taos Amrouche, linked
to Kabylia as geographical and cultural space. Jacqueline Arnaud (1986) wrote that it was necessary to speak of
“Francophone” Berber-speaking and Arabic-speaking authors “if one is interested in the linguistic substratum of
the French language . . . and the perspectives envisaged.” Writer and researcher Nabile Farès (1987: 94, 96)
raised this issue by referring to the Berber-ness of some works, even though they are written in French. Salem
Chaker (1989b: 23) speaks of “French-speaking Kabyle writers” by considering the Kabyle roots of their works,
the reception of the public, and the promotion of the Berber language by these writers through the collection and
translation of poems, songs, and oral tales. In a number of cases, one can also add the production of grammars
and dictionaries. Such a trend does not fade after independence but, on the contrary, continues in the production
of writers who revendicate a Kabyle origin (see Merolla 1995). Similarly, there are several references to Berber
languages and communities in Légende et vie d’Agoun’chich (The Legend and Life of Agoun‘chich, 1984) by
the Moroccan writer Mohamed Khaïr-Eddine and in literary texts written in Arabic by the Libyan writer Ibrahim
Al-Koni. In more recent times, the productions of migrant authors in Europe have been largely written in the
languages of these countries: in addition to the vast production in French, there are new writings in Dutch, in
Catalan, and in Italian by authors of Amazigh origin. However, the language and cultural references to Amazigh
languages, contexts, cultural imaginary, and characters are never isolated from a broader context and reveal
intercultural elements and references. More than an “ethnic” Amazigh/Berber discourse, these works narrate a
quest for identity which resists cultural homogeneity endorsed by nationa l and international intellectual and
political powers. As said previously, the novels narrating such a quest for identity were accused of “localism”
and of French “acculturation”. Notorious debates around the works of Mouloud Feraoun and Mouloud Mammeri
included the nationalist critique of the supposed acculturation, regionalism, self -ethnography, and lack of
patriotism of the authors. xxvii The nationalist critique in turn has been debunked in its ideological elements. xxviii
Writing in Amazigh Berber is a definitively “territorialized” endeavor. As in the case of Amazigh oral poetry
and narratives, writing is solidly anchored in the vernacular, in the sense that authors use and prom ote their own
linguistic variation and that their readers are usually speakers/readers of the same vernacular. As Salhi and Sadi
(2016: 32) note:
Written in one of the Berber variants, its [the Berber novel’s] reception is realized only withi n the limits
of this variant. Thus, we will speak of Kabyle novel (Kabylia and Kabyle diaspora especially in France),
Chleuh novel (mainly the region of Souss where the Tachelhit [a Berber variant] is spoken and Chleuh
diaspora mainly in France), and Riffian novel (the region of Rif and Riffian diaspora especially in the
Netherlands). . . . We will say that the Kabyle novel, the Riffian novel, and the Chleuh novel compose the
Maghreb novel written in Berber.
At the same time, one recognizes an Amazigh transnational effort, as neologisms are created from other
Amazigh variations and from common linguistic roots. The questioning of national belonging and of cultural
affiliation are central themes, as well as language creativity and the blurring of genre and la nguage boundaries,
as in the case of other postcolonial literatures. As mentioned previously, the influence of the languages of school
education, such as French and Arabic, often appears in the syntactic structures, and the blending of genres, for
instance, is revealed by the scientific debate on what can/should be defined as ungal or tullist, which are the
usual translations, respectively, for “novel” and “short story” (Salhi 2011: 86–87; Ameziane and Salhi 2014).
However, when one looks at the institutional side, notwithstanding local and individual efforts, the recognition
of Amazigh in Algeria and Morocco in the last two decades has not yet translated into organized support of
literary writing in Amazigh (Salhi 2011). While this latter aspect is linked to the still-continuing status of
“minority” attached to the Amazigh/Berber language, the territorializing, transnationalist, and identity discourse
of the novels in Amazigh point to a cultural difference and, in Bhaba’s terms, to literature as a form of
intervention aimed at resisting totalization. On the other hand, the choice of a written – and (inter)national –
language in the arena of oral and written communication is symptomatic of the prestig e and hegemony of literacy
and an indication of the “situation of minority” experienced by oral languages and by the speakers of
Amazigh/Berber vernaculars who were often educated in languages other than their mother tongue. Their novels
in French and in Arabic, and later on in other languages of the diasporic locations, reveal the search for linguistic
interaction with their vernaculars and for a renewed literary expression. This language interaction destabilizes
the mainstream language and, at the same time, also establishes a form of “reterritorializing” the novels, which
contributes to creating a community not only narratively but also in public reception.xxix Such a reception also
impacted nationalist criticism (see previously) and state censure, because these novels were perceived, whatever
the themes treated, as politically motivated. The novels written in other languages by speakers of
Amazigh/Berber vernaculars can therefore be interpreted as those of “minor” voices, characterized, as we saw,
by destabilization of the mainstream language, community building, and political tenor. However, the production
in French, Arabic, and other languages should not be understood as isolated from writing in Amazigh and from
the cultural project to promote Amazigh/Berber locally, nationally, and transnationally, which to various extents
is shared by those who narrate and sing in Amazigh vernaculars.

Conclusion: Amazigh/Berber literary space

The definition of Amazigh/Berber literature is usually considered equivalent to “ literature in Amazigh/Berber”

by the immediate identification of the literary corpus on the basis of the language of creation. Although it may
seem simple and immediately applicable, language-based identification can be problematic. Questions arise from
the combination of political and theoretical approaches to literature definitions – for instance, in the case of
British and American literature using the same language or in the case of the so-called Francophone/Anglophone
literatures deriving from an imperial, nowadays rejected, distinction between the centers of colonial empires and
their ex-colonies. Language-based definitions are justified through a form of relativism which sees language as
the vehicle of a specific worldview and by nationalist ideas abo ut the uniqueness of a language to express the
feeling of national unity in literature.
Regarding the Amazigh/Berber literary productions, theoretical approaches and nationalism have led to an
ignoring – for different and sometimes opposite reasons – of the fact that there have been multiple lines of literary
creation. The usual definition of Amazigh/Berber literature tends to isolate texts that maintain intra- and extra-
textual relations with several languages and literatures within one language field. Ref lecting on multimediality
(oral, written, audiovisual, and digital modes) and multilingualism, one sees that the oral and written texts
discussed previously present the following traits: the “territorializing” of the texts by the use of Amazigh
vernaculars in spoken, sung, or written form and by the marked reference to such vernaculars and their oral
genres in another mainstream language (e.g. Arabic, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, and so forth); the linguistic
interaction characterizing the texts, whatever the language, the media, and the location of the literary
productions; and the reference to tamurt (the land and its inhabitants) and to its history as a form of intervention
that creates an identity narrative and establishes the intertextuality of a va riety of literary productions. Literary
genres with such narrative characteristics belong to a continuum in which the Berber/Amazigh refer ences and
the discourse of its identity construction constitute one of the relevant readings ( Merolla 1995, 2006: 13–16, 28–
40). This continuum is a domain of multiple affiliations, which partially overlaps and interacts with different
artistic traditions of the multilingual context of North Africa (Amazigh/Berber, clas sical Arabic, dialectal Arabic,
French, Judeo-Arabic, and so forth). I define such a continuum by the notion of “Amazigh/Berber literary space,”
a term which aims to go beyond the limits of the usual definition of Amazigh/Berber literature and to
acknowledge the creolization of the North African context (Merolla 2006: 73; Merolla 2014).
A theoretical point needs to be mentioned here. The term “literary space” seems more appropriate for our
approach than the notion of “field” commonly used in literary studies ( Bourdieu 1991). The notion of field
implies a rigid autonomy of “literature,” bestowed with a coherent economic and intellectual structure, a
linguistically homogeneous readership, and common shared institutions (Magdelaine-Andrianjafitrimo 2006;
Mouralis 2001). A shared language (one of the vernaculars) is therefore not sufficient to es tablish a field without
the other structuring elements. The Amazigh case, moreover, presents cleavages among literary in stitutions
related to different languages and different forms of “habitus” provided by oral, written, audiovisual, and digital
media. I consider the Amazigh “literary space” a vague and floating continuum. On the one hand, the literary
institutions of such a continuum are unequal and in competition; on the other hand, the range of individual
positions is also differentiated and unequal. The situation is therefore at the same time more complex than, and
less representable by, a structured “field” where each “atom,” each text or author, can be directly related to the
others. What the continuum presents is the play of intertextuality and the evocation of a discourse of identity –
through references to the histories, scenes, and characters attached to a specific Amazigh/Berber vernacular
referring to (and, eventually, redefining) a specific cultural region. As seen previously, a transnational Amazigh
community also takes form in many contemporary sung and written productions. The relations among the media
of expression (oral, written, audiovisual, and digital media) and the languages (Amazigh/Berber, Arabic, French,
English, and so forth) determine multiple dialectics of power among texts and authors. In other words, one can
adopt the notion of field for the “literature written in Kabyle,” with shared literary forums and with works and
writers who define each other, but it is more complicate to speak of the “field” of oral and written productions
in Amazigh/Berber which do not share such forums and do not have a common “habitus.” The notion of “literary
space” develops from this point and indicates the continuum provided by all the productions which, whatever
the language (Kabyle, Tasoussit, Arabic, French, English . . .) and the medium (orality, writing, audiovisual,
digital . . .) used, do share the Amazigh-Berber problematic and construction of “identity,” without being
compelled to share literary institutions and the other structuring elements characterizing a “field” in Bourdieu’s
definition.
In conclusion, the situation of minority attributed to the Amazigh/Berber language is a product of colonial and
postcolonial historical processes. As indicated previously, territorializing, transnationalism, and identity
discourse in literary (oral and written) genres in Amazigh/Berber point to cultural difference and to literature as
a form of intervention which challenge totalization and (so-called) universal cultures in the present and in the
past. Literary productions in mainstream languages, on the other hand, show the traits attributed to “minor”
voices, such as deterritorialization, community building, and political tenor. However, there is also th e re-
territorialization of these productions, which should be understood in a much larger “literary space” and not as
isolated from the cultural project to promote Amazigh Berber, which is shared by those who sing, narrate, and
write in Amazigh. The production of contemporary identities, local and transnational, in the Amazigh Berber
literary space expresses a long process of re-appropriation and subversion of linguistic and cultural data produced
during colonization and in the postcolonial period and is an example of the effort to discuss manipulative visions
of cultural homogeneity promoted by various centers of intellectual and political power.

Notes

References

Abrous, D., La production romanesque kabyle: une expérience de passage à l’écrit, Mémoire en vue du Diplôme
d’Etudes Approfondies, Université de Provence, 1989.
Abrous, D., La production romanesque kabyle: un aperçu sur la thématique, LiAF, 1992 : 105.
Achour, Christiane. 1986. Mouloud Feraoun, Une voix en contrepoint. Paris: Silex.
Adam, Jeanne. 1987. “Influence d’un conte kabyle et de quelques romans coloniaux sur ‘Le Fils du pauvre’ de
Mouloud Feraoun.” In Actes du colloque Jean Amrouche, l‘éternel Jugurtha, 539–546. Marseille: Du
Quai, Laffitte.
Ait Ali, Belaïd. 1963, 1964. Les Cahiers de Belaïd, ed. by Jean-Marie Dallet and Jules-Louis Degezelle, Fort
National : FDB [1963 (texts), 1964 (translation)].
Akarkach, Btisam (ed.). 2018. Opstand in de Rif [Rebellion in the Rif]. Berchem: EPO.
Akunad, Mohammed. 2002. Tawargit d imik [A Dream and a Little More]. Rabat: Tizrigin Bouregreg.
Akunad, Mohammed. 2007. Ijjigen n tidi [Flowers of Toil]. Agadir: Aqlam.
Aliche, Rachid. 1981. Asfel [The Ritual Sacrifice]. Lyon: Fédérop.
Aliche, Rachid. 1986. Faffa [La France]. Lyon: Fédérop.
Ameziane, Amar and Mohand Akli Salhi. 2014. “Tullist kabyle: réflexions préliminaires sur le corpus.” In Actes
du 3ème colloque international sur la problématique des genres littéraires amazighes: définitions,
dénominations et classifications, 114–120. Bouira: Université de Bouira.
Arnaud J., La littérature maghrébine de langue française, Paris : Publisud, 1986.
Barber, Karin. 1995. “African Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism.” Research in African Literatures,
26(4): 3–30.
Basset, Henri. 1920. Essai sur la littérature des Berbères. Algiers: Carbonnel. New edition: 2001. Paris: Awal-
Ibis Press.
Belalimat, Nadia. 2010. “The Ishumar Guitar: Emergence, Circulation & Evolution from Diasporic Performances
to the World Scene.” In Tuareg Society within a Globalized World, ed. by Anja Fischer and Ines Kohl,
155–170. London and New York: Tauris Academic Studies.
Bensmaia, Réda. 1994. “On the Concept of Minor Literature.” In Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy,
ed. by Constantin V. Boundas and Dorothea Olkowski, 213–228. London and New York: Routledge.
Berrichi, Boussad. 2013. “Émergence d’une nouvelle littérature en Afrique du nord.” In Trajectoires et dérives
de la littérature-monde. Poétiques de la relation et du divers dans les espaces francophones , ed. by
Cécilia Francis and Robert Viau, 255–272. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.
Bertheleu, Hélène. 2008. “Pour une approche sociologique de l’insertion des nouveaux venus.” Glottopol, Revue
de sociolinguistique en ligne, 11. www.univ-rouen.fr/dyalang/glottopol
Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Bounfour, Abdellah. 1990. “Autobiographie, genre et croisement des cultures. Le cas de la littérature
francophone du Maghreb.” Itinéraires et contacts de cultures, 10: 85–90.
Bounfour, Abdellah. 1999. Introduction à la littérature berbère. 1. La poésie. Paris and Louvain: Peeters.
Bounfour, Abdellah. 2005. Introduction à la littérature berbère. 2. Le récit hagiologique. Paris and Louvain:
Peeters.
Bounfour, Abdellah. 2006. “Littérature berbère contemporaine.” Encyclopédie berbère, 28–29: 4435–4439. Aix-
en-Provence: Edisud.
Bounfour, Abdellah. 2018. Introduction à la littérature berbère. 3. Le conte merveilleux. Paris and Louvain:
Peeters.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. “ Le champ littéraire.” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 89: 3–46.
Bourlet, Mélanie. 2013. “L’acte d’écrire: sur la performativité de l’écriture littéraire en pulaar.” Journal des
Africanistes, 83(1): 106–132.
Bouyaakoubi, Lahoucine (Anir). 2010. Igdad n Wihran [Birds of Oran]. France: Privately Printed.
Buchanan, Ian and John Marks (eds.). 2000. Deleuze and Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Camps, Gabriel. 1984. “Être berbère.” Encyclopédie berbère, 1: 7–26.
Carlier, Omar. 1984. “La production sociale de l’image de soi. Note sur la ‘crise berbériste’ de 1949.” Annuaire
de l‘Afrique du Nord: 347–371.
Chaker, Salem. 1984. “Langage et identité berbère (Algérie/migration): un enjeu de société.” Annuaire de
l‘Afrique du Nord: 173–180 (a).
Chaker, Salem. 1989a. “Arabisation.” Encyclopédie berbère, 6: 834–843. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud.
Chaker, Salem. 1989b. Berbères aujourd’hui. Paris: L‘Harmattan.
Chaker, Salem. 2003. “Le berbère.” In Les langues de France, ed. by Bernard Cerquiglini, 215–227. Paris: PUF.
Chaker, Salem. 2013. “Amazigh/Berbère/Tamazight: dans les méandres d’une dénomination.” Revue des Etudes
berbères, 9: 221–239.
Chemak, Saïd. 2008 [1993]. Ger zik d tura [From the Past and Today]. Alger: Asqamu Unnig n Timmuzgha
(High Commission for Amazighity).
Coulon, Alfred. 1930. “La femme kabyle.” Bulletin de la société géographique d’Alger et de l’Afrique du Nord,
124: 553–575.
Culshaw, Peter. 2007. “Desert Storm [Tinariwen].” Songlines, 42, March–April: 20–25.
www.eyefortalent.com/eft-press/T-N%20SonglinesMarApr07.pdf
Dehane, Kamal. Assia Djebar, entre ombre et soleil. (Documentary). France : Zeaux Productions, 52 min. 1992
Déjeux, Jean. 1992. “Francophone Literature in the Maghreb: The Problem and the Possibility.” Research in
African Literatures, 23(2): 5–19.
Déjeux, Jean. 1994. La littérature féminine de langue française au Maghreb. Paris: Karthala.
Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. 1975. Kafka: Pour une littérature mineure. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit.
Dirèche, Karima. 2017. “La vulgate historique berbère en Algérie: savoirs, usages et projections.” In Les
revendications amazighes dans la tourmente des ‘printemps arabes’, ed. by Mohand Tilmatine and
Thierry Desrues, 67–89. Rabat: Centre Jacques-Berque.
Elbaz, Robert and Martine Mathieu-Job. 2001. Mouloud Feraoun ou l’émergence d’une littérature. Paris:
Karthala.
El-Zein, Amira. 2015. “Mythological Tuareg Gods in Ibrahim al-Koni’s Work.” Alif: Journal of Comparative
Poetics, 35: 200–216.
Études et Documents Berbères. 2016 (35–36). [Special volume on Berber manuscripts].
Farès, Nabil. 1987. “Civilisation berbère et langue française au Maghreb.” Revue de l’Occident Musulman et de
la Méditerranée, 2(44): 92–96.
Galand-Pernet, Paulette. 1998. Littératures berbères, des voix, des lettres. Paris: PUF.
Gans-Guinoune, Anne-Marie. 2010. “Autobiographie et Francophonie: cache-cache entre ‘nous’ et ‘je’.” Relief,
3(1): 61–76.
Genevois, Henri. 1974. Légende des rois de Koukou (Le Fichier périodique 121). Alger: Le Fichier Périodique.
Ghouirgate, Mehdi. 2015. “Le berbère au Moyen Âge. Une culture linguistique en cours de reconstitution. ”
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 70(3): 577–605.
Goodman, Jane E. 2005. Berber Culture on World Stage, from Village to Video. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.
Haines, Daniel. 2015. “From Deleuze and Guattari’s Words to a Deleuzian Theory of Reading.” Deleuze and
Guattari Studies, 9(4): 529–557.
Hanoteau, Adolphe. 1867. Poésies populaires de la Kabylie du Jurjura. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale.
Hindi Zahra. 2009. “J’ai envie de promouvoir l’amazigh à travers mon chant.” [Interview]. Aujourd’hui le Maroc,
29 January. www.aujourdhui.ma/maroc-actualite/magazine/zahra-hindi-j-ai-envie-de-promouvoir-l-
amazigh-a-travers-mon-chant-61657.html
Hindi Zahra. 2010. “Oursoul.” Handmade (music).CD. Label EMI/Blue Note (UK/US).
Hindi Zahra. 2011. “Discovery: Hindi Zahra.” Interview, 29 August. http://interviewmagazine.com
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/?s=hindi+zahra
Igli n tlelli [Horizon of Freedom, pseud.]. 2004. Lwerd n tayri (The Rose of Love) nd.
Ilikoud, Ouali. 2006. “FFS et RCD: partis nationaux ou partis kabyles?” Revue des mondes musulmans et de la
Méditerranée, 111–112: 163–182. http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/2870
Irele, F. Abiola and Simon Gikandi (eds.). 2004. The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
JanMohamed, Abdul R. and David Lloyd. 1987. “Introduction: Minority Discourse: What Is to Be Done ?”
Cultural Critique, 7: 5–17. doi:10.2307/1354148.
Jay, Cleo. 2016. “Playing the ‘Berber’: The Performance of Amazigh Identities in Contemporary Morocco.” The
Journal of North African Studies, 21(1): 68–80.
Kateb, Kamel. 2004. “Les séparations scolaires dans l’Algérie coloniale.” Insaniyat, 25–26: 65–100.
Khadda, Naget. 1991. “Autobiographie et structuration du sujet acculturé dans Le Fils du Pauvre de Mouloud
Feraoun.” In Itinéraires et contacts de cultures, 13: 79–85. Paris: L‘Harmattan.
Khaïr-Eddine, Mohammed. 1984. Légende et vie d’Agoun’chich. Paris: Seuil.
Kizzi, Akila. 2019. Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche Passion et déchirement identitaire. Paris: Michalon.
Knibiehler, Yvonne. 1994. “L‘enseignement au Maroc pendant le protectorat (1912–1956). Les fils de notables.”
Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, 41(3): 489–498.
Kossmann, Maarten. 2000. A Study of Eastern Moroccan Fairy Tales. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.
Koudache, Lynda. 2009. Aâecciw n tmes [The Fire Hut]. Tizi-Ouzou: Tiẓrigin Tasekla (Éditions Littérature).
Lacheraf, Mostefa. 1953. “La Colline oubliée ou la conscience anachronique.” Le Jeune Musulman, 15, 13
February: 4–6.
Lacoste-Dujardin, Camille. 1970. Le conte kabyle, étude ethnologique. Paris: Maspéro.
Lahlou, Abdelhak. 2017. Poésie orale kabyle ancienne: histoire sociale, mémoire orale et création poétique.
Dissertation. Direction: Tassadit Yacine. École des hautes études en sciences sociales. Paris.
Laurie, Timothy and Rimi Khan. 2017. “The Concept of Minority for the Study of Culture.” Continuum, 31(1):
1–12.
Lee, Benjamin Todd, Finkelpearl, Ellen and Luca Graverini (eds.). 2014. Apuleius and Africa. New York:
Routledge.
Le Rouzic, Maurice. 1996. “Écritures autobiographiques chez Mouloud Feraoun.” In Littératures
autobiographiques de la francophonie, ed. by Martine Mathieu‐Job, 45–55. Paris: l’Harmattan.
Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce. 2011. The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce. 2017. “Insécurité à la périphérie: les griefs socio-économiques et le mouvement
amazigh au Maroc.” In Les revendications amazighes dans la tourmente des “printemps arabes”, ed.
by Mohand Tilmatine and Thierry Desrues, 195–213. Rabat: Centre Jacques-Berque.
Magdelaine-Andrianjafitrimo, Valérie. 2006. “Champs et espaces littéraires: le cas des romans mauriciens.” In
Qu’est-ce qu’un espace littéraire?, ed. by Xavier Garnier and Pierre Zoberman, 137–156. Saint-Denis:
Presses Universitaires de Vincennes.
“Mali Tuareg Rebels’ Call for Independence Rejected.” BBC News, 3 June 2012. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-
africa-17640223
Mammeri, Mouloud. 1969. Les Isefra. Poèmes de Si Mohand-ou-Mhand. Paris: Maspéro.
Masbah, Mohammed. 2017. “A New Generation of Protests in Morocco? How Hirak al-Rif Endures.” Policy
Alternatives, Arab Reform Initiative, November.
Merabti, Fatima. 1997 and 1998. Yir Tagmat [Bad Brotherhood]. Tizir, November: 36–40 and January: 35–38.
Merolla, Daniela. 1995. “Peut-on parler d’un espace littéraire kabyle?” Études et Documents Berbères, 13: 5–
25.
Merolla, Daniela. 2006. De l’art de la narration tamazight (berbère). 200 ans d’études: état des lieux et
perspectives. Paris and Louvain: Peeters.
Merolla, Daniela. 2014. “Intersections: Amazigh (Berber) Literary Space (Intersections: l’espace littéraire
amazighe–berbère).” In Vitality and Dinamism: Interstitial Dialogues of Language, Politics, and
religion in Morocco’s Literary Tradition, ed. by Kirstin R. Bratt, Youness Elbousty, and Devin J.
Steward, 47–72. Leiden: Leiden University Press.
Mezdad, Amar. 1990. Id d wass [Day and Night]. Alger: Azar and Asalu.
Millar, Fergus. 1968. “Local Cultures in the Roman Empire: Libyan, Punic, and Latin in Roman Africa.” Journal
of Roman Studies, 58: 129–130, 133.
Modéran, Yves. 2003. Les Maures et l’Afrique Romaine (IVe–VIIe siècle). Rome: École Française de Rome.
Morgan, Andy. 2007. “Tinariwen: Sons of the Desert.” Songlines, 29. Online in Andy Morgan Writes . . .,
Website, 6 January, 2011. www.andymorganwrites.com/tinariwen-sons-of-the-desert/
Mouline, Nabil. 2016. “Qui sera l’état? Le soulèvement du Rif reconsidéré (1958–1959).” Le Carnet du Centre
Jacques Berque, December. https://cjb.hypotheses.org/186
Mouralis, Bernard. 2001. “Pertinence de la notion de champ littéraire en littérature africaine .” In Les champs
littéraires africains, ed. by Romuald Fonkoua, Pierre Halen, and Katharina Städtler, 57–71. Paris:
Karthala.
Oiry-Varacca, Mari. 2012–13. “Le ‘printemps arabe’ à l’épreuve des revendications amazighes au Maroc. Analyse
des enjeux territoriaux et politiques des discours sur l’identité.” L’Espace Politique, 18.
http://espacepolitique.rev. ues.org/2504.
Ould-Amar, Tahar. 2006. Bururu [Owl]. Bejaia: Azur.
Pennel, C. Richard. 2017. “How and Why to Remember the Rif War (1921–2021).” The Journal of North African
Studies, 22(5): 798–820.
Plantade, Emmanuel and Nedjima Plantade. 2014. “Libyca Psyche, Apuleius: Narrative and Berber Folktales.”
In Apuleius and Africa, ed. by Benjamin Todd Lee, Ellen Finkelpearl, and Luca Graverini, 174–202.
New York: Routledge.
Ponzanesi, Sandra. 2004. Paradoxes of Post-Colonial Culture: Contemporary Women Writers of the Indian and
Afro-Italian Diaspora. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Roberts, Hugh. 1982. “The Unforseen Development of the Kabyle Question in Algeria.” Government and
Opposition, 16(3): 312–334.
Roberts, Hugh. 2014. Berber Government: The Kabyle Polity in Pre-Colonial Algeria. London and New York:
IBTauris.
Rouighi, Ramzi. 2011. “The Berbers of the Arabs.” Studia Islamica (new series), 1: 67–101.
Sadi, Said. 1983. Askuti [Boy Scout]. Paris: Imedyazen.
Sahli, Mohammed Cherif. 1953. “La Colline oubliée ou la colline du reniement.” Le Jeune Musulman, 12(3), 2
January.
Salhi, Mohand Akli. 2005. “La nouvelle littérature kabyle et ses rapports à l‘oralité traditionnelle.” In La
littérature amazighe: oralité et écriture, spécificité et perspectives. Actes du colloque international (. . .)
Rabat, 23, 24 et 25 octobre 2003, ed. by Aziz Kich, 103–121. Rabat: IRCAM.
Salhi, Mohand Akli. 2011. Études de littérature kabyle. Alger: ENAG.
Salhi, Mohand Akli. 2014. “Quelle grille d’analyse pour le (sous) champ littéraire kabyle.” In Champs littéraires
et stratégies d’écrivains, ed. by Mohamed Daoud and Faouzia Bendjelid, 145–154. Oran: CRASC.
Salhi, Mohand Akli and Nabila Sadi. 2016. “Le Roman Maghrebin En Berbère.” Contemporary French and
Francophone Studies, 20(1): 27–36.
Schipper, Mineke, Merolla, Daniela and Inge Brinkman. 2019. Afrikaanse Letterkunde. Tradities, genres, auteurs
en ontwikkelingen [African Literatures: Traditions, Genres, Authors and Developments]. Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press.
Tanti, Samriddhi. 2011. “Hindi Zahra: Music for the Soul.” EF News International, 21 September. www.efi-
news.com/2011/09/hindi-zahra-music-for-soul.html
Tazaghart, Brahim. 2003. Salas d Nuja [Salas and Nuja]. Bejaia: Privately Printed.
Tilmatine, Mohand. 2017. “Des revendications linguistiques aux projets d’autodétermination: le cas de la
Kabylie (Algérie).” In Les revendications amazighes dans la tourmente des printemps arabes:
Trajectoires historiques et évolutions récentes des mouvements identitaires en Afrique du Nord, ed. by
Mohand Tilmatine and Thierry Desrues, 125–160. Rabat: Centre Jacques-Berque.
Wolf, Anne. 2018. “Morocco’s Hirak Movement and Legacies of Contention in the Rif.” The Journal of North
African Studies: 1–6. doi: 10.1080/13629387.2018.1538188
Yacine, Tassadit. 1995. “Femmes et création en Kabylie.” Awal, 12: 23–27.
Yedjis n Idura n Arrif, Samira. 2001. Tasrit n weẓru [The Bride of the Rock]. Oujda: Anakhla.
Zaheur, Lahacem. 2008. Amussu n umalu [The Movement of the Shadow]. Agadir: Aqlam.
Zénia, Salem. 1995. Tafrara [Dawn]. Paris: L’Harmat
Zouggari, Ahmed. 2005. “Le système d’enseignement sous le protectorat français et espagnol.” In 50 ans de
développement humain au Maroc et perspectives 2025, 453–469. http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/index.asp

i “Berber” was increasingly rejected by activists because of its etymological links with “barbarous” in European languages
and in Arabic. Complex political issues are involved in the state appropriation of the term “Amazigh” in Morocco and
in Algeria; see Chaker (2013).
ii Maddy-Weitzman (2017).
iii All translations of items listed only in French in the References are mine.
iv Tamazight is spoken in the Middle Atlas. In Algeria, the term “Tamazight” is used to refer to the Berber language as a

whole, whereas in Morocco, to avoid confusion with the variant of the Middle Atlas, the term “Amazigh” was chosen
when the IRCAM, the Royal Institute of the Amazigh Culture, was founded in 2001. Taqbaylit (Kabyle) is spoken in
Kabylia and Tachawit (Chaouia) in the Aurès Mountains (north Algeria); Tarifit (or Tarifiyt, also called Chleuh by its
speakers) is the vernacular in the Rif (north Morocco) and Tasoussit (also called Tachelhiyt/Tachelhit or Chleuh) in the
Souss (south-western Morocco).
v Ghouirgate (2015: 598–599, 603).
vi See Études et Documents Berbères 2016.
vii Zouggari (2005) and Kateb (2004).
viii Hanoteau (1867), Basset (1920), and Coulon (1930).
ix Roberts (1982: 334), Chaker (1984: 174), and Carlier (1984: 347–371).
x Maddy-Weitzman (2011: 86, 89–90) and Mouline (2016).
xi The uprisings in 1962–1964, 1985–1990, and 1990–1996 were repressed harshly by national armies. Long-term disquiet

and international pressure brought a relatively stable peace agreement in 1995 (Niger) and in 1996 (Mali), until new
insurgent acts in 2007–2009 and 2012.
xii See “Mali Tuareg rebels’ call for independence rejected,” BBC News (3 June 2012).
xiii See the “Berber Spring” in 1980 and the “Black Spring” in 2001 and 2002.
xiv The Amazigh flag presents three colors, yellow, green, and blue, with the red Tifinagh character ⵣ (Z).
xv Ilikoud (2006) and Tilmatine (2017).
xvi The movement was triggered in 2016–2017 by the dramatic death of Mouhcine Fikri while he tried to salvage his fish

confiscated by the police in Al Hoceima. (Masbah 2017; Akarkach 2018; Wolf 2018).
xvii
Following the wave of demonstrations which swept through Tunisia in December 2010 .
xviii The following reflections are drawn from Schipper, Merolla, and Brinkman (2019: 341–342).
xix Barber (1995), Bourlet (2013), Irele and Gikandi (2004), and Merolla (1995, 2006).
xx Lacoste-Dujardin (1970), Galand-Pernet (1998), Bounfour (1999, 2005, 2018), Kossmann (2000), and Merolla (2006).
xxi Lahlou (2017: 376).
xxii Culshaw (2007).
xxiii Hindi Zahra, interview, 2009 (stage name of Zahra Hindi) and Tanti (2011).
xxiv “Oh my father”—standard transcription is a baba-inu ba, where the last ba is an alliteration on baba, father.
xxv “Companions…”. Translation by Belalimat (2010: 7).
xxvi Translation by Belalimat (2010: 5).
xxvii
Lacheraf (1953), Sahli (1953), and Achour (1986).
xxviii Adam (1987), Khadda (1991), Elbaz and Mathieu-Job (2001), and Merolla (2006).
xxix Berrichi (2013), El-Zein (2015), and Kizzi (2019).